


Sand and Sundown

by Miki_and_company



Series: Will they?(they will) (but it'll take forever) [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Car rides, Fluff, Humanstuck, M/M, Pining, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, ambiguously gay shenanigans, beach, yes both at the same time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 17:16:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7182128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miki_and_company/pseuds/Miki_and_company
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Best friends, Karkat and Dave are celebrating Karkat's new car and the beginning of summer with a day at the beach. Karkat pines for Dave, and the day is nice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Maestro

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leuzkra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leuzkra/gifts).



Karkat stood in front of his new car with barely dissimulated pride. When Dave arrived at his house, he laughed.

“Nice ride dude.”

Karkat tapped the front of his mid-2000 Toyota matrix invitingly.

“Are you ready?”

“Ready as can be.”

They had decided that to celebrate the new purchase of Karkat, along with the arrival of summer, there was no better way to than to take a sweet drive to a lakeside beach, about an hour and a half outside the city. The two best friends were in an uncannily enthusiastic mood. The sun was shining even brighter than they had hoped. For once Dave didn’t look at all out of place with his sunglasses tightly glued to his face. Karkat’s heart clenched a bit at the sight of him. God. It was exhausting to see him like this, but oh so much more painful to be away.

Karkat sat in the driver seat and let Dave take place besides him. They did a quick check of everything they had brought, before finally backing out of the driveway.

There was many people in the city, on that Sunday afternoon.

Windows down, the car made its way through the busy streets. Karkat tried his best to stay calm and avoid conflict, but the best of his tries couldn’t refrain him from yelling at a few people.

“Oh, fuck, yeah, right, you just do that, cut three lanes, sure. I don’t know where they teach hemorrhoids-ridden assholes where to drive, but where I learned, they taught us about a fucking thing called blinkers!"

At one point a cyclist forced him to make everyone in the car violently jerk forward by breaking.

“I just CANNOT believe, even a fucking cyclist doesn’t understand the meaning of a red light. That’s a pretty fucking universal sign, but, you know, you do you. If you send your pitiful ass flying ten feet in the air, it won’t be any of my fucking business.”

The boy was odd in his driving: he respected every single rule of the road, but had the hardest time predicting the behaviour of other vehicles in a way that still made him a poor driver.

The radio played a mediocre medley, which did get lost in the concerto of car horns and pedestrian friendly chat. However, when they entered the highway, they closed the windows and suddenly Karkat calmed down a notch. The circulation became fluid. His stressful reactions stopped being a hurdle. His driving became smooth.

They had some peace.

“Dude the radio sucks can I change the station?” Dave asked.

“yeah, sure”

Dave switched the stations for a while, before sighing. Nothing satisfied him.

“You can’t plug an iphone on this thing, no?”

The radio was an old one, without any plug for usb or aux cords.

“No, you can’t. But I have CD’s in the glove box.”

Dave smiled.

“You know me so well.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

He shuffled through the CD’s.

“Wow Karkat. That’s an embarrassing collection.”

“Says the guy who owns every fucking Vanilla Ice single.”

"Touché."

He held up a CD.

“What’s that, Shakira? God, that’s gay, Karkat.”

Karkat winced imperceptibly.

“If you call something, anything, gay just ONE more time, Strider…please just fucking stop, okay?”

It didn’t use to bother him. But now it was the thing that made Karkat the most annoyed at Dave. Not that most of Dave didn’t annoy him. But everyone annoyed him, and Dave annoyed him in a way that almost mocked his anger, and true it is that he needed that sometimes. But the gay thing…he knew Strider never did it on purpose. It bothered him nonetheless. Especially with the feelings he now knew he had. It felt like a fucking gulp of bleach down his throat. He wasn’t GAY, and he knew Dave didn’t actually despise that, but it felt like unconscious mocking anyway. It reminded him that Dave would likely never like him back. That he could probably never tell him his orientation, even completely omitting the part that involved him being into Dave.

Dave looked obliquely at the CD.

“Yeah, you’re right, sorry.”

Wait. What? Did Dave just APOLOGISE?

It must be freezing in hell.

Karkat quickly thought about everything that might have brought that reaction. Could he have guessed? Could Terezi have told him? Oh god, everything but that. Please.

Dave slid the CD into the slot and pressed the right buttons to make it play.

Listening, the both of them fell into an awkward silence. Somewhere along the way, it turned into a peaceful silence. Maybe when Karkat realized his best friend was quietly mouthing the lyrics to “hips don’t lie”.

The sun danced on Dave’s face. The hills came and went. He was resting his shin on the dashboard, his head on the window. Karkat tried his best to focus on the road, but damn was it hard.

He imagined how Strider’s hair would drift slightly on the beach. He observed how focus he looked. In his own thoughts, as always. He watched how his head naturally nodded to the rhythm of the music. He observed his lips. Oh, his lips. Pale, like the rest of him, but pink enough. Chapped, slightly. Soft looking. He bit them, and used them to mouth the words he sang. Every time he talked, there was always a certain teen boy who couldn’t stop looking. Yeah, one could say Karkat had a bit of an oral fixation on Dave.


	2. novela

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> um. NOBODY CAUGHT ON TO MY STUPID REFERENCE IN THE LAST CHAPTER. or maybe you all did but just didn't care because it was obvious and dumb. or maybe it was too obscure. idk. enjoy this.

So Dave’s hair DID waver in the wind. And it was awesome.

They were both sat on a picnic blanket, under the trees, maybe two dozen meters away from the water. The smell of Barbeque was filling their noses. Karkat was reading one of his novels, while Dave was beside him, leaning on his back, hands under his head, feet crossed, eyes closed (perhaps?).

Karkat had a hard time focusing. He enjoyed the moment, purely and simply. He took a deep breath. He closed his book on his lap and tried to look more closely if Dave was, indeed, sleeping.

He sure looked like he did.

Karkat ogled at him with much less care. It would be so perfect if, at this moment, he could just plant a tender kiss on his smug li…

Hey!

Dave had snatched Karkat’s book from his prying hands and was running across the grass and into the sand. The dumbfounded teen ran after him. He was a bit embarrassed over the fact Dave, wasn’t, after all, asleep, but even more so at the fact that he was holding up over his head Karkat’s Harlequin novel. A paperback embarrassingly titled “Destiny’s embrace” and featuring a compromisingly positioned couple on the front.

A couple of heads turned in their direction. Karkat blushed.

“Give me that! You fucking assface!”

Dave had let Karkat get closer to him, but held the novel out of his reach.

“Hahaha calm down.”

“It’s MY book, I swear if you ruin it…”

“don’t these things cost, like, three dollars?”

Karkat tried his best for a while, before giving up and simply reaching on the ground, taking a handful of sand and throwing it at his friend. Dave winced. Karkat hadn’t aimed for the mouth but he obviously had made him swallow some sand. He wiped his tongue with his hand several times.

“ugh. Disgusting. Fuck. Karkat.”

Karkat jumped. On sand, it was hard. Dave nudged him in the shoulder and threw him off balance.

They were on equal grounds again. Karkat just persevered. He was awfully close to Dave. He could feel the breath coming out of his mouth cracked in a smug smile. Fuck. That was sexy. He groaned.

“Dave…”

“What’s the magic word?”

“Please Dave just. Fuck. Please.”

Dave, satisfied, handed back the book.

“…and thank you.”

“fuck you”

“you wish, uh? »

It was Karkat’s turn to nudge Dave.

They returned, panting, on their blanket. Dave opened the cooler and handed Karkat a soda, while getting himself a bottle of apple juice.

They sat and drank.

“Do you want to go swimming?” Dave asked.

“Not really, you?”

Strider shrugged.

“Not really. But I do need to apply sunscreen again. Went in the sun for 2.4 seconds and I already know it was too much. Pass me the white stuff, Karkat. »

So he does. Oh god Dave removes his shirt he was not prepared for this. Fuck. Just. Breathe. In. Out. Fuck. In. Out. He closed his eyes.

“Dude if you can get over yourself, maybe you can help me with the back?”

No homo. Very homo.

“uh….sure.”

Fuuuuuuuuck.

He took the bottle of sunscreen. Should he…should he have been enjoying this? It’s not like he was ever to get anything better than that, in terms of on Dave action…

No. Fuck. He was too nervous to enjoy this. This was way too ambiguous. Bluh.

Okay, Karkat thought. Calm your tits. Chillax, like Dave says.

He rubbed his hands together.

“Are you okay dude you look nervous? I mean don’t sweat it I can go ask some chicks further down the beach or something…”

“I’m fine Dave. Finer than me you’re a fucking French cheese for fuck’s sake.”

He rubbed raggedly his hands against Dave’s back.

All right, this was the least sexy way this could have gone. Karkat wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not. He detached his mind from his actions, but still took the time to memorise the callosities on Dave's back with his hands. It was all very weird.

“Thanks, bro.”

Karkat exhaled. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath.

“Just become a fucking contortionist next time or something.”

“yeah right.”

This was getting out of hand. Back to the book. Yeah.

Karkat picked up his book and read. His thoughts wandered.

How did he had realized just recently about this thing? It felt so fucking important right now. It almost seemed impossible for him to imagine when he didn’t think about Dave all the time. He wondered how he could keep it going. Would it fade away? That would be such a waste, yet he couldn’t keep this up for too long. Maybe he’d find a way to tone it down, to still have those feelings but not let them ruin him. He could have a secret identity. Pining lover by night, best bro by day? Well wow that sure sounded stupid.

Maybe. Maybe if one day he felt like he had a chance. Like, the tiniest of tiny chances, maybe he would confess. It was such a feeble dream, yet he also felt like that was the only way he could keep it up. Flirt subtly. Back away when Dave is weirded out.

Maybe he could manage.

He looked at Dave now, with these new eyes. He still wanted to kiss him. But he could wait. He could wait forever if that was what was needed. Maybe, perhaps, it would only make that hypothetical first kiss even sweeter, like when his novels had very long and desperate buildups.

For now, he could look at him.


	3. Landscape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> apparently this fic is music themed which I don,t know why cause my musical culture isn't even that great but whatever I guess

Kakrat was tired, but he couldn’t sleep. Partly because he was driving, but mostly because his fatigue was a strange mix of physical and psychological that almost felt energetic. Dave, however, was dozing in the passenger's seat.

It was maybe eight in the evening, but the sun was barely setting. Far ahead, he could only see hills of trees bathed in ocher light. Time had stopped. The radio was back on.

The first chords of the _California dreamin' ___cover by _freischwimmer ___came on. It played along to the sound of the engine and of speed on the highway. The passing landscape, the quiet from inside the car, it was hypnotic.

_Lala da da da_

_Lala da da_

_Lala da da_

_Lala da da da_

_He would gladly live and die in this single instant of existence. And yet he kept driving, as if there was no end to that road, as if sooner or later he wouldn’t have to take an exit, get back to his house. Maybe Dave would stay. He hated his own place, after all. Then it would be nice. But it would be no RIGHT NOW._

___It would just be another day. Another night. Another wait for a thing which may never come._ _ _

___The highway breaks into smaller roads. The rhythm slows down and if you look closely, in each house lives someone. How can so many people matter? Do they? Does he?_ _ _

___Let him taste importance. Let him drive. Let him pretend he is alone and that the world runs fast for him._ _ _

___He felt bittersweet. Maybe a bit corny._ _ _

___Somewhere in this universe, there was a loop that had to be closed, a story that had to be told. But whether he would be the one to tell it has always made him insecure. He never felt like HE could be the one. Someone, somewhere, will tell a better story, fall in love with the right people, do the right thing, be at the right place at the right moment. Even a happy ending might not close a loop. He would just drift off into the void. Be forgotten. Maybe? Possibly. Thing is, he had_ _ _

___to go on to even have a chance. He had to pine, he had to drive, he had to wait. Otherwise, he would just ruin his story, become one of those who didn’t make it._ _ _

___Gosh._ _ _

___It didn’t matter._ _ _

___Because he drove home, because he woke up a sleepy Dave who smiled dazedly at him, and it made his heart clench. Dave excused himself to the shower, and Karkat sat against the door, song still in his head. His sunkissed face was sore from the day, and sand stuck between his toes. He could feel every single pore of his skin. He could hear every single droplet of water falling on Dave's body from through the door. When Dave came drippling wet out of the bathroom, it was his turn to clean himself._ _ _

___It would be a lie to say he didn't relieve himself. He hoped Dave wasn't listening to him like he had. Or maybe he hoped he did._ _ _

___When he got out Dave was reading a magazine sat on his bed. They talked the night away._ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> Karkat's other CD's were "fearless" by Taylor Swift, "No string attached" by Nsync, "Confessions on the dance floor" by Madonna and one of Dave's mixes in a Katy Perry "teenage dreams" cover. He's trash for pop music and is also kind of a decade late on everything.
> 
>  
> 
> Maybe I'll do some other thing afterwards.(could seriously do a series on that) I don't know if this even is good, but I had a good time writing it so I guess nothing is lost.  
> I guess this was heavily inspired by "Do you ever feel like you've forgotten something?" from the "Dave is a fucking idiot" series by Leuzkra who is bae.


End file.
